SIR: I totally agree with Brendan Doherty regarding old comedy programmes screened during better times.

I don't know whether he has Sky TV or not, but some of these old programmes like Please, Sir and Nearest and Dearest, have been recently screened on Sky It will be comforting to know that all the programmes he has mentioned still exist.

I am not so lucky. My favourite comedy programmes date from the mid-1960s, in the 'black and white' days, and I am very angry to know that many have now been destroyed. Who do the TV companies think they are? These programmes are as much ours as theirs - well the licence fee is enough to ensure the 'safety' of these programmes!

I am happy to see again The Army Game which was compulsive viewing in the late 1950s. I even remember a plot where Pte Bone baked a cake, and I am very pleased that this has turned up. I have not seen this for nearly 40 years! The quality of these episodes are really good considering their age. My main grumble is the scrapping of many 1960s comedies such as Here's Harry with Harry Worth, and Just Jimmy with Jimmy Clitheroe. Many Eric Sykes episodes are lost as are Meet the Wife episodes.

These Best of British Comedies put modern comedies to shame. They were a laugh a minute, without resorting to smutty innuendo. Mr Doherty mentioned The Likely Lads. Again I liked the 1960s episodes best, and most of these did not survive. I do have the next best thing - radio versions of them. So I count my blessings that at least these exist.

B Howarth

Alexandria Drive, Westhoughton.

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